The Pill Hill Historic District is a historic district roughly bounded by Boylston Street, Pond Ave., and Acron, Oakland and Highland Roads in Brookline, Massachusetts. The district, which is mainly residential, was developed in the mid-19th century for an upper-middle class professional population. Commuter railroads connecting Brookline to Boston opened in 1848, making the town attractive for working professionals who wished to live in a more open suburban area. Several major Boston architects designed homes in the district, including Robert Swain Peabody, Walter H. Kilham, Ware & Van Brunt, and William Ralph Emerson. By the 1880s, a significant number of doctors had settled in the district, giving it its current name. Dr. Walter Channing, one of the doctors living in the district, estab